


almost nice

by daisylincs



Series: Agents of Birthdays [25]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Agents of Birthdays, Alternate Universe - High School, Annoying Characters, Arguing, Awkwardness, Bad Jokes, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Getting Together, Gift Fic, Happy Birthday Stan!, Happy Ending, Jokes, Lemons, Teasing, birthday fic, the fruit NOT THE FANDOM TERM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29740932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisylincs/pseuds/daisylincs
Summary: Daisy Johnson has never liked Deke Shaw, but when he takes her seat on the school bus, that's even more true than ever before. But maybe, as she spends a little more time with him, she'll see that he isn't quite as bad as she first thought.
Relationships: Deke Shaw/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Agents of Birthdays [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1886911
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	almost nice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [black_norse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/black_norse/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Stan! xD

Daisy Johnson always sat in the back seat of the bus. It was a fact of SHIELD High life.

So when Deke Shaw - immature, annoying, thinks-he's-cleverer-than-everyone-else-but-is-really-just-a-weirdo-with-a-thing-for-lemons Deke Shaw - took her seat one day, needless to say she was _not_ impressed. 

“Uh, excuse me, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, crossing her arms and glaring indignantly down at him.

Deke glanced up, smirking at her. “Me? I’m sitting.” 

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Daisy quipped. “I meant, what the hell do you think you’re doing _in my seat?”_

Deke made a big show of turning around and checking for a name tag on the seat, even ducking down to look below its cushion. “Your seat? Afraid I don’t see any proof of ownership,” he said, straightening up and looking at her with an expression so obviously _not_ innocent that she wanted to hithim. 

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. _We don’t karate-punch boys, Daisy, no matter how tempting it may be,_ her foster mother’s words echoed through her head, warm but dry.

“I don’t own the seat, obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s just that it’s my favourite one, and everyone knows it.” 

Deke made a totally insincere wince. “I’m sorry,” he said in a tone that clearly showed he wasn’t sorry at all. “But we can’t always have what we want, you know. Sometimes life gives you lemons.” 

“Then you squeeze them in life’s eye,” Daisy deadpanned. “Now, get out of my seat.” 

“Though I appreciate your lemon meme, no,” Deke replied, shooting her a wide grin when her jaw dropped. 

“I like this seat too!” he said, again with that faked innocence that she wasn’t believing for a second. 

“I’m _sure_ you do,” she snapped, her eyes narrowing into little slits. “It’s the best seat on the bus.” 

“And now it’s my seat on the bus,” Deke returned with a pleasant grin.

“Oh my God, I am going to -” 

But Daisy never got to finish her threat, because at that moment, the bus gave an alarming lurch. 

“Hey!” she yelped, scrambling to grab onto something before she toppled over. “I don’t have a seat!” 

The driver glanced back, squinting to be able to see her, and rolled his eyes. “Just share with your friend in the back.” 

Daisy’s jaw dropped for the second time in as many minutes. “I am _not -”_

But the driver had already turned forwards again, and the bus gave another, much bigger lurch beneath them as the ignition caught, and the engines roared to life.

Cursing her luck, and especially cursing Deke Shaw, Daisy glanced frantically around the bus, searching for an empty seat somewhere. 

Nothing _._

_Shit._

It seemed like she _was_ going to have to share the seat - _her_ seat - with Deke Shaw, after all. 

_Eugh._ Daisy had never needed to share a seat with someone before, and she _certainly_ hadn’t planned on doing so anytime soon. Except, well, things didn’t always work out the way you thought they would.

Making sure to elbow Deke hard in the side on her way, Daisy sat down slowly and infinitely reluctantly, squeezing herself onto the seat next to him. 

“Thanks for asking if there was room for you,” Deke said drily. 

“Thanks for making it necessary,” Daisy shot back immediately. 

The side of her body pressed up to his felt uncomfortably warm - was he always this much of a human hot water bottle? - and she glared out of the window as the bus began to move properly, thinking of all the most inventive ways she could flip Deke over her shoulder and send him crashing to the floor. 

_Kotegaeshi, nikkyo, irimi nage…_ A world of possibilities.

And he’d deserve every single one of them for making her sit through this nightmare. 

“Hey, Daisy?” Deke asked suddenly as their bus was going around its first corner. 

She gritted her teeth. “What?” 

“What did the lemon say to the lime?” 

Daisy blinked at him, utterly taken aback. “I… what?” 

“What did the lemon say to the lime?” Deke repeated with an almost puppy-like eager smile. 

When she continued to look blank, he rolled his eyes. “It _said,_ ‘you’re so a-peeling!’ _Come_ on, I know you have a sense of humour… you have to!” 

Daisy snorted, not even bothering to dignify that sad excuse for a joke with a response. 

But Deke wouldn’t let up. “I _know_ that you have a sense of humour,” he said persistently, tugging at her sleeve. “I’ve seen you laughing with Jemma by the tennis courts.” 

_“Jemma,”_ Daisy said archly, “is actually _funny.”_

Deke’s eyebrows shot up, and he crossed his arms, accidentally (or maybe not) elbowing her in the ribs as he did. “I take personal offence to that. I’m funny!” 

And for the next half-hour, he proceeded to do his best to prove to her exactly how funny he was. 

“What do you get if you cross a cat with a lemon? … A sourpuss!” 

“What do you give a sick lemon? … Some lemon-aid!” 

“A friend of mine lost his job at the lemon factory… he couldn't concentrate.” 

“Why did the lemon stop rolling down the hill? … It ran out of juice!” 

Daisy couldn’t help her snort at that last one, and despite her best efforts, a little grin tugged up the corners of her lips.

Deke saw it immediately, and his eyes lit up. “Oh my God, you’re smiling!” 

“Shut up, I’m not,” she snapped, folding her arms and turning her head away to further hide that persistent grin that seemed to have taken up residence on her lips.

But she could just hear the smile in Deke’s voice as he replied, “You totally are, and it’s _beautiful.”_

Surprised, she turned her head back around, and found him blushing madly, dropping his gaze to the floor. 

“I… I mean,” he stammered, his cheeks getting even redder under her enquiring gaze, “you’re really pretty when you smile. Not - not that that’s the only important thing about you! At all! You’re one of the smartest and bravest people I know, and one of the _coolest,_ and I’m kinda in awe of you, and the way computer science comes so naturally, and the way you can basically do anything in the world if you want to, and… I’ve always kind of had a crush on you, I mean how could I _not_ you’re literally the most amazing person in the school, but I never knew how to even try and ask you out, so I thought I’d come to your seat so I could get you privately, except then I started making an idiot of myself, I do that all the time when it’s you, I can’t help it you’re just so incredible I can’t focus and... I should just stop talking now, shouldn’t I?” 

“Probably,” Daisy agreed, but entirely to her own surprise, she was grinning. More than that, she found that her grin had doubled - almost _tripled,_ in fact - during the course of his awkward ramble. 

That slew of compliments had just been so… unexpected, but so welcome. 

It was so _nice_ to be recognised for all the things she was so proud of herself for, you know? 

More than that, she couldn’t help but feel a little touched. No-one had ever sought out the back of the bus specifically because it had her in before.

And no-one had _ever_ told her she was so incredible that they couldn’t focus around her.

She was… honestly, she was completely disarmed. 

And, also, she couldn’t help replaying that little, happy grin Deke had gotten when she had first snort-laughed at his dumb joke - his whole _face_ had brightened and lit up, eyes sparkling and dimples twinkling. He had just looked so genuinely, genuinely happy - and all because _she_ had smiled.

Now, _that_ was a new experience for her.

Also… Deke Shaw was cute. Like. _Illegally_ cute. That little grin… 

What the hell, how had she never noticed how cute Deke Shaw was before? 

It probably had something to do with the fact that she had always seen him as just an annoying, immature idiot, Daisy thought wryly. 

But the thing was… yes, Deke Shaw was immature, but he was also _sixteen,_ and very few sixteen-year-old boys were paragons of maturity at that age.

Even _fewer_ sixteen-year-old boys were this genuinely sweet, though - and unlikely as it seemed, Deke was one of those rare, rare specimens.

He was awkward, and dorky, and yes, a little bit of a dumbass, but in his own way, it was… it was _endearing._

 _He_ was endearing.

She just kept circling back to it - how _adorable_ wasn’t it to wait in the back of the bus specifically to meet her, and prepare a whole host of dumb jokes for the sole purpose of making her smile? And, sure, his initial execution of The Smile Plan had been a little iffy, but Daisy would grant that she hadn’t exactly made it easy at first. She had been kind of an asshole, actually, and she didn’t blame him for responding in kind.

Especially if he really _did_ feel that wowed around her - God, wasn’t _that_ flattering? 

Daisy had spent years in the foster system, bouncing from house to house, and being told that she wasn’t good enough, that nobody would ever care to give her the time of day - and here was a boy, a _cute_ boy, too, telling her that he was totally head-over-heels for her.

She must have been silent for too long, because Deke started babbling again, twisting his hands nervously in his jacket. “Look, I’m sorry, and I know you won’t ever feel the same way, and this was the worst way ever to ask you out, but I really have no idea how to do it better, it kind of runs in the Fitz-Shaw family I think. Anyway. I’d, uh, if you ever didn’t hate me, I think it could be really great to maybe get lemonade with you -” 

“I think I’d like that,” Daisy interrupted, putting her hands gently on top of his to stop him worrying his shirt any more. 

Deke’s jaw dropped, and he glanced slowly up from her hands on his to her eyes and back down to her hands. “I… excuse m… I’m not… what? You… what?” 

She couldn’t help smiling again, poking him gently in the stomach with her finger. “It’s a yes, Deke.” 

“A yes?” he repeated dumbly. “Like… to lemonade? At Coulson’s?” 

Daisy smiled, catching his hand and looping her fingers through his. 

_Ooh._ Tingles, and an irrational desire to burst into a Disney princess love song - maybe this _would_ work out, after all. 

So she said - 

“It’s a date.” 


End file.
